I mentioned this article in the Database Weekly editorial, but I thought it deserved it's own space. Here's an article on how to improve your chances of an unwired vacation. Especially as it's summer and there are any number of people, especially in Europe, looking to take extended vacations.
Most of the people working in IT seem to actually work pretty hard. They put in long hours, work after hours, and are on call pretty much all the time. And they seem to get called on a regular basis, so perhaps more than some other professions, IT workers really need to take vacations.
But with the world becoming more connected all the time, it's easy to get interrupted while trying to relax, perhaps even with the expectation that you'll be available. So with that in mind, for this Friday's poll:
How Do You Get Unwired for Vacation?
Meaning how do you prevent getting called or asked to work on vacation? It can be hard, especially when you want your cell phone available on vacation, but it's paid for by your employer.
In the past, I've usually made it clear that I was working on vacation and that my boss shouldn't call me. I've often not taken a laptop, and if I have, avoided committing to email. I tend to set an out of office that says I won't have any email access and tell people I'll be gone.
But honestly, most of my vacations have included some type of "check-in" on my part. It might be a quick look at systems to be sure that nothing is broken, or perhaps just make sure that someone back at work is handling the load. I wasn't too bad at this when I was in corporate America, but once I started working for SQLServerCentral.com, it was hard for me to let things go.
However living and vacationing in Colorado has helped some. Lots of places in the mountains don't have cell coverage, much less Internet 🙂
Steve Jones
The Voice of the DBA Podcasts
The podcast feeds are now available at sqlservercentral.mevio.com to get better bandwidth and maybe a little more exposure :). Comments are definitely appreciated and wanted, and you can get feeds from there.
or now on iTunes!
- Windows Media Podcast - 29.8MB WMV
- iPod Video Podcast - 21.3MB MP4
- MP3 Audio Podcast - 4.3MB
Today's podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.
I really appreciate and value feedback on the podcasts. Let us know what you like, don't like, or even send in ideas for the show. If you'd like to comment, post something here. The boss will be sure to read it.